Spurrier rumors abound

Posted by Brian McAlister November 30, 2006 11:38
First, a housekeeping plea. Seems some users are clicking the "Report Objectionable Comment" link that appears after each comment when they just want to post their own comment. If you will instead use the "Add Your Comment" link that appears at the top of the comments column, your comment will appear much faster.

Now, onto today's rumor mill.

As much as everyone has downplayed the possibility of Spurrier coming to Alabama, stranger things have happened. Chris Walsh of the Tuscaloosa News blogs that it might not be the most impossible thing to imagine.

A rundown of Division I-A head coaching changes for the 2007 season: A Change At The Top TEAM OLD COACH NEW COACH Alabama Mike Shula Arizona State Dirk Koetter Cincinnati Mark Dantonio Pat Narduzzi (interim) Florida International Don Strock Iowa State Dan McCarney Gene Chizik Miami Larry Coker Michigan State John L. Smith Mark Dantonio North Carolina John Bunting Butch Davis North Carolina State Chuck Amato North Texas Darrell Dickey Tulane Chris Scelfo

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. -- Officials at a Goose Creek elementary school say police plan to question fifth grade students about a teacher who became ill after drinking deadly chemicals earlier this month.

The teacher at Boulder Bluff Elementary was hospitalized in critical condition November 16 after drinking methanol and ethylene glycol, a clear, colorless liquid used in antifreeze.(link)

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The City Council here voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s potential to expand in the nation's eighth-largest city.

The measure, approved on a 5-3 vote, prohibits stores of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. It takes aim at Wal-Mart Supercenter stores, which average 185,000 square feet and sell groceries.(link)

The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.(link)

The arctic deep freeze trapping Calgary is on track to break a 110-year-old weather record today, but the bitter cold is expected to ease in the coming days.

With a forecast low of -31C today, Calgary could break the -27C record set on this day in 1896. (link)

Nov. 29, 2006 13:52
UN rights chief: Cease-fire good first step
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA

The United Nations' top human rights official called the cease-fire agreement reached last week between Israelis and Palestinians "indispensable" to reducing the threat facing civilians on both sides.

However, Louise Arbour told the global body's rights watchdog that the crisis Israelis and Palestinians are facing will not be resolved through short-term solutions.

"Addressing and resolving the human rights in the region cannot be held hostage to either stopgap measures that may be revoked, or to a resolution of the political crisis that may prove still someway off," said Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights.

Democrats will protect law-breakers
By Michelle Malkin · November 28, 2006 01:41 PM
Ed Morrissey points to this disturbing Washington Times report:

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A Mississippi Democrat in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has warned the nation's largest uniform supplier it faces criminal charges if it follows a White House proposal to recheck workers with mismatched Social Security numbers and fire those who cannot resolve the discrepancy in 60 days.

Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Cintas Corp. it could be charged with "illegal activities in violation of state and federal law" if any of its 32,000 employees are terminated because they gave incorrect Social Security numbers to be hired.

"I am deeply troubled by Cintas' recent policy change regarding the Social Security Administration's 'no match' letters," Mr. Thompson said in the Nov. 2 letter. "It is my understanding that hundreds of Cintas' immigrant workers have received these letters. I am extremely concerned about any potentially discriminatory actions targeting this community."

---

The Democrats: Protecting illegal alien workers, identity thieves, and Social Security scammers across the country in the name of preventing "discrimination."

There's a winning homeland security platform for 2008!

MANCHESTER – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.

7,000 Qaeda members killed or captured in two years
Nov 28 11:10 AM US/Eastern
US and Iraqi forces have killed or captured at least 7,000 Al-Qaeda fighters in the past two years, with 30 "senior leaders' taken out of action since July.

The news comes hard on the heels of a leaked US Marine report that states US forces cannot defeat the Al-Qaeda-led insurgency in the vast western desert province of Al-Anbar.
"Since October 2004, we have now killed or captured over 7,000 Al-Qaeda terrorists," coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell told journalists on Tuesday.

"Coalition and Iraqi security forces have made significant progress in dismantling the terrorist network," he said, adding that since July some 30 "senior level" Al-Qaeda have also been killed or captured.

Also, in the past two weeks, a series of raids throughout central and northern Iraq netted 11 leaders of the Al-Qaeda-allied Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group, he said. (link)

Women talk three times as much as men, says study
By FIONA MACRAE
Last updated at 22:00pm on 27th November 2006
It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied. Women really do talk more than men.

In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man.

Women also speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat - and actually get a buzz out of hearing their own voices, a new book suggests. (link)

Pelosi-Hastings Meeting Could Signal End of Chairmanship Bid

Monday, November 27, 2006

WASHINGTON — House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi will meet Tuesday with Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, and those with knowledge of Pelosi's thinking told FOX News that Hastings will be told he is not going to be the next chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Though no formal decisions have been announced and Pelosi aides say the situation remains fluid, they suggest that the meeting at Pelosi's Capitol Hill office was requested by Hastings so he could bow out of the race before Pelosi denies him the job.

"He knows he's not going to get it," said one senior House Democratic aide. "The question is why he didn't bow out long ago." (link)

via AP
A wise ruling in the benefit for National Security. One can only hope that this ruling will make the NY Times and other MSM sources think twice before revealing classified information and tipping off terror-funding front groups. Sadly, it will probably only make them more careful about it. Hopefully we will see some heads roll on this one.

Hat tip: Iowa Voice
They say it is to make more room for Presidential portriats.
The American mint has removed the official “In God We Trust” motto from the face of it dollar coin and has relegated it to the gold-colored coin’s thin edge. Mint officials said the reason for the change is to leave more room for portraits of former presidents and the Statue of Liberty.
You can view the coins here. Click on the “Edge Lettering” to see what they have done.

Despite Truce, Palestinian Attacks Go On

By AMY TEIBEL and IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as an unexpected truce took hold Sunday, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

The rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting cease-fire, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes. The rockets landed in open fields and caused no injuries.(link)

This is absolutely outrageous! It shouldn’t take long for O’Reilly to pick up on this news. Unbelievable!!

A Democrat community leader who would “offer a homily during worship services” and facilitated his congregation’s “opening our doors to all people regardless of sexual orientation” has been given a slap on the hand after pleading guilty to extensive child pornography offenses involving children as young as six.

First of all, I don’t care what political party this sicko belongs to. It is only significant in that his political ties may have played a part in how light of a sentence he got. His actions and the lack of justice from the judge involved is what outrages me.

Pakistan Senate Passes Women's Rights Bill

Pakistan took a step out of the Dark Ages yesterday, but you can be sure Islamists are already plotting violence in response: Senate passes women’s bill; MMA amendments rejected. (Hat tip: Shr_Nfr.)

November 24, 2006

SANDY LEVINSON: "This is the perfect time for Speaker-designate Pelosi to announce that she will sponsor a bill, ideally with the outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert, to revert to the older Succession in Office Act that was replaced in 1947 with the present one. This would indeed make Condoleezza Rice the designated successor were the vice presidency vacant. It would represent an act of high statepersonship and, as much as any single act could do, establish that she means it when she describes the arrival not only of new leadership, but a new public-spiritiedness to replace naked partisanship."
Mike Rappaport agrees. Any idea that can draw the support of both is worth thinking about.

Madonna Preaches "Authentic Teachings of Jesus"

In a bleeped line, she seems to say, "Just go to Texas and suck George Bush's ----."{removed. LN}

Similar to Jesus' line, "It is harder for a rich man to enter Heaven than it is for ox to pass through the eye of the needle while it is simultaneously sucking the prick of a dispeptic llama."

This sort of sub-moronic agitprop from low-functioning celebrities trying to cling to the edginess of a youth they can barely remember -- well, who really cares, apart from Madonna's Apostle St. Andrew of the Sacred Butt-Plug?

Schumer's Plans
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:06 PM

Chuck Schumer is really the Dem's Senate Leader --he built their 51-49 majority, after all, not Harry Reid-- so Schumer's agenda deserves some close scrutiny. They key bits:

Berkley Nativity Update
by davef on 11-24-06 @ 5:15 pm Filed under ACLU, Church And State, News, Christmas

Cross Posted from Revealing the ACLU: Last month I wrote about a group called STAT (Stop The ACLU Tyranny), who was fighting to preserve the Nativity Scene in the city of Berkley. The city Nativity Scene, like so many others, had come under attack from the ACLU.

Well, Monday Night The Berkley City Council voted on this issue.

The description from YouTube:

Footage from Dutch Commandos raiding a suspected IED facilitator in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. On the way back to base they get ambushed.

Ps. yes there is a American ODA member in the vid, he was attached to the Dutch unit.

It’s a pretty hardcore firefight.

...at least not without deep pockets, a full bench of spies and a death wish.

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died by poisoning. AP has the story.

Mr. Rangel's disgust is misplaced. Anger at the disproportionate share of sacrifice overlooks the fact that this is a volunteer army and the soldiers are where they want to be. Mr. Rangel may be right that a lot of mamas don't want their boys to grow up to be soldiers in Baghdad, but it's also true that a lot of mamas don't want their boys to grow up to be congressmen. -- Wesley Pruden

A Gray Day
I didn’t exactly spring from bed this morning to greet what wonderment and discovery the day might hold for me. It was more a slow, painful, joint-creaking, unwilling return to consciousness. A good thing a mischievous poltergeist didn’t come to visit last night, strewing obstacles throughout the rooms. It wasn’t until after I drenched the mind numbing ravages of sleep with a hot shower that I was able to open my eyes enough to see.

CREW posts transcript of 1988 Hastings impeachment proceedings
Conyers is the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee so it’s his statement you’re looking for. It starts on numbered page 12 and runs through page 18. Highlights: all the new evidence that came to light after Hastings’s acquttal at trial at the top of page 14; the not-at-all suspicious escape from Washington towards the bottom of page 15; and his openness to the possibility that the charges against Hastings were trumped up for racial reasons — until he looked at the facts and realized the guy was guilty as sin.

Empty Seats Defy The Realists

In the last few months, many in the US have been urging the Bush administration to open direct talks with Syria and Iran on security issues in Iraq, among other issues. They have stated that we have to engage with Syria in order to stabilize Lebanon as well as Iraq. However, Michael Young of the Beirut Daily Star writes in the London Times that Syria's record of assassinations in his country should signal the US that no partner for stability and democracy exists in the Assad regime:

Weather Officials: Snowflakes Spotted In Central Florida
POSTED: 4:19 pm EST November 21, 2006
UPDATED: 8:34 am EST November 22, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Snowbirds come to the Sunshine State to escape them, but weather officials said a few snowflakes were spotted in Central Florida.

"This is weird. This is not why we moved to Central Florida. We thought we left this behind," said Orlando resident Sandy Pastor.People like Pastor certainly didn't expect to see snow flakes. It wasn't enough to make a snow man, but still, snow is snow.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The News Right Now

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 12:01 AM

One source. One click.

Email It |  Print It |  Take Action |  Comments (2)  |  Trackbacks (1)

Speaker Gingrich condemned Pelosi for considering impeached former Judge and now Congressman Alcee Hastings on last night’s Hannity & Colmes. Liberal co-host Alan Colmes defended Hastings because he was never convicted in a criminal court.

Our son was in a helicopter crash today while on a Search and Rescue mission.

Please pray for him and the officer who was with him.
His name is Brian Grayson and the officer’s name is Kevin Orr.

Everyone pray for the 2 victims of the crash please.

November 21, 2006 3:14 PM

From Our Sources:

First Daughter Barbara Bush had her purse and cell phone stolen as she had dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, even though she was being guarded by a detail of Secret Service agents, according to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News.

It was not the only mishap on the two-week trip to Argentina by Barbara (right) and her twin sister Jenna (left). (link)

Art imitates life

I don't have a TV, but a friend alerts me to an episode of CSI which seems to have been inspired by the Lebanon Fauxtography scandal.

Twin sisters are murdered a few hours apart. Both adopted by different families, they had never met. One was a stay-at-home mom, the other a newspaper editor.

(link)

Dreaming in America

I ‘spect Santa is going to be getting a lot of requests for the new Playstation this year. I heard tell there are folks camping out so they can be at the head of the line when new shipments of this $600.00 bit of conspicuous consumption hits the stores. No one wants their kid to be deprived of one of the necessities of life.

From Buffalo read the entire thing.
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Cassandra at Villainous Company has a fantastic essay answering the question, "What would YOU die for?"

I urge you, check it out.

Sen. Barack Obama Calls for Troop Withdrawal

November 21st, 2006

Another useless politician rushes to surrender to Iran.

      Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, called this afternoon for troop withdrawal from Iraq starting next

From the Blogs of War.
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Seminar Offering?

Posted by: Dean Barnett at 8:59 PM

There has been some talk in the comments section concerning whether or not I will be aboard the Hugh Cruise. I don't know, but if I do attend the cruise, I plan on conducting a fascinating seminar: “The Conservative Soul” or Ambien: How To Know Which Is Right For You. For conservative insomniacs, this could be a life-changing event. Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com

From the Townhall Blogs.
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November 21, 2006

IRAQ: "So far this month, the civilian casualty count is well below the casualty count in October and below the six-month average. The security force casualties reduced 21 percent over the past four weeks, and are at the lowest level in 25 weeks, he said."

posted at 10:37 PM by Glenn Reynolds

Of course at InstaPundit.
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BBC Ties Self in Knots to Avoid Noticing Hizballah Crimes

Here’s a priceless quote from the BBC, whose editors did not realize that two adjacent sentences in this article contradict each other: Israel to probe cluster bomb use.

As well as highlighting the issue of cluster bombs, Amnesty found that Hezbollah hid Katyusha rockets among civilians and often fired them into Israel from the cover of civilian villages.

But researchers found no evidence that Hezbollah actually used civilians as human shields during the fighting.

Firing rockets from civilian villages isn’t using civilians as shields?

There is no Britney sex tape, Federline's lawyer says

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - There is no "sex tape"
involving pop star Britney Spears and estranged husband Kevin
Federline, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

After Spears filed for
divorce from the fledgling rapper this month, reports surfaced in the
tabloid press that Federline had in his possession a videotape of the
couple having sex and was considering making it public. (link)

Reason amongst the dhimmikrauts

Liberty Counsel Pushing For Public Expression Of Religion Act To Pass Current Congress

by Jay on 11-21-06 @ 4:06 pm Filed under ACLU, Church And State, 1st Amendment, PETITIONS, News

From a Liberty Counsel email:

From Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

Jay, I just received wonderful news that Sen. Sam Brownback is urging his colleagues to allow a vote on the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA)–a measure that sailed through the House 244-173.

Passage of PERA would eliminate the awarding of attorney’s fees to groups challenging the constitutionality of displays on public property. Groups like the ACLU have made millions of dollars using the threat of monetary awards to intimidate officials into removing Ten Commandment monuments, Nativity scenes, crosses, or the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

++ Emergency Petition Presentation Announced!

Jay, Sen. Brownback and others believe there is still time to pass PERA before Congress adjourns. That is why I am announcing an emergency petition presentation to Sen. Brownback’s office during the first week of December!

I would like to present the Senator with a minimum of 150,000 petitions supporting PERA, but I need your help!

Over the next two weeks I am asking members of our Liberty Counsel team to do two very important things:

++ Action Item #1–Alert Your Friends

To reach our 150,000 goal, I am counting on your help in getting our message to your friends and family. Please forward this message to 25-30 friends urging them to be a part of this presentation by adding their name to our petition:

Click here to sign:

++Action Item #2–Contact your Senators

While Sen. Brownback is appealing to his colleagues to allow a vote on PERA, you can do the same thing by calling your Senators and urging them to support a vote on PERA.

To contact your Senators, call the Capitol Switchboard:
202-224-3121.

Jay, passage of PERA represents an important step in defeating the ACLU. That is why it is so important that you rally your friends to be part of our upcoming petition presentation, and call your Senators!

Thanks so much for standing with Liberty Counsel!

From Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

This bill is a very important and much needed peice of legislation. While it has an uphill battle to pass this Congress, if it is left to the upcoming Congress it is sure to die out. Take action now and contact your Senators to support PERA.

Wake up America linked with Stop the ACLU Blogburst

He creates fusion in his Oakland Township home

On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college.
But to his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist."(rest)